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Sustainable packaging is packaging that, over time, reduces its environmental footprint. The Sustainable Packaging as defined by the GreenBlue® project is packaging which:

is sourced responsibly,

is designed to be effective and safe throughout its life cycle,

meets market criteria for performance and cost,

is made entirely using renewable energy, and once used,

is recycled efficiently to provide a valuable resource for subsequent generations.

In summary: a truly closed loop system for all packaging materials.

Terms like ‘eco-friendly’ ‘green’ and even ‘natural’ has been bandied around quite a bit with no regulated and defined standards to test such claims. ‘Biodegradable’ and ‘Compostable’ are other such terms and most products, especially disposables that claim to be so but are destined for the landfill will not biodegrade or decompost even in our lifetime!

Technically all materials are biodegradable or compostable, but a traditional plastic water bottle will take 450 years to decompose. Something labelled as biodegradable can make its claim though a technicality in the very definition (saying that anything is biodegradable if you wait long enough isn’t a lie after all). This idea makes it difficult for users to know exactly how much they are helping the environment and how ‘green’ the product really is.

Both a biodegradable and compostable material will breakdown and decompose overtime. The issue here is how long the decomposition takes and the by-product that is left behind. This is very much dependent on the composition of the material and the environment in which the decomposition occurs.

Biodegradation occurs when microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and algae convert materials into biomass, carbon dioxide and water. The main material is non petroleum based in nature and usually made from plant or animal sources. Examples are paper, vegetable scraps and some forms of plastics made from ingredients such as corn starch. Decomposition can take place from as short as a day to as long as a year. Biodegradation can take place in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. By definition, most chemicals are biodegradable because they’re capable of being broken down by the action of living things, such as microorganisms. Current international guidelines stipulates that the entire package should be completely broken down and returned to nature within a “reasonably short period of time”

Composting process is similar to the biodegradation process, except that the biodegradation process is carried out in a composting facility, where conditions (water, humidity, temperature, and lighting) are optimally tuned to bring about a speedy biodegradation.

In both processes, both biodegradable and compostable materials will ‘disappear’ after some time and the non-toxic by-product become fertilizers known as humus (very dark soil) which can be used to boost the growth potential of another plant.

Compostability and biodegradability are not based on the feedstock of the product. It’s literally based on the chemical signature that is, the way the plastics are put together. The final product and any inks or labels used, need to be tested and certified using international standards in their own right as being biodegradable. And consumers express greater confidence in conformance with standards that are independently assessed by a third party, i.e. a certification body.

Be mindful of the following issues and environmental challenges:

Bioplastics are not always truly compostable. You can have oil-based plastics thatarecompostable and plant-based plastics that are not compostable.

Different compost facilities use different processes. Some have trouble even with bioplastics.You need to know what your local composting facility does and does not accept. In some facilities, the plastic-coated packaging get separated and no visible plastic is left in the compost, while others are concerned that the nearly invisible tiny fragments of plastic will ultimately ends up contaminating the environment. Screening out the compostable items means extra steps and costs.

A product is either 100% compostable or it is not as most composting facilities cannot separate the biomass from the plastic effectively. .

Most coffee cups and to-go food containers may look/claim to be recyclable and compostable. But they are lined with very thin plastic to hold food and drink. This plastic coating breaks down into tiny plastic fragments which do not disappear. Consequently, they contaminate the finished compost as well as the soil where that compost is used. Worms and insects will ingest them in the soil; and when they get washed out with the rain, they feed into rivers, lakes, and oceans and impact marine ecosystems.

PLA (Polylactic acid - PLA) a plastic substitute made from fermented plant starch (usually corn) is quickly becoming a popular alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics. It biodegrades slowly unless subjected to industrial composting. PLA may well break down into its constituent parts (carbon dioxide and water) within three months in a “controlled composting environment,” that is, an industrial composting facility heated to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and fed a steady diet of digestive microbes

Ordinary plastics are passed on as oxo or hydro degradable product. Certain additives or chemicals are added into the compositional makeup of the plastic material to speed up the process of degradation. The degradation is not biological but chemical degradation by oxidation and hydrolysis for oxo and hydro-biodegradable plastics respectively.The main material is still petroleum based plastics and the extent of the degradation process really depends on the amount of additives added. The more additives added, the faster the degradation, the more expensive the product. It can never be as cheap as normal plastics. If the product is as cheap as normal petroleum plastics, then the amount of additives is very little and the product is like normal plastic.

Several companies are greenwashing their so called oxo or hydro degradable product using this unethical method of adding very little additives and hoping to gain a premium on their otherwise ordinary everyday plastic material. Upon burial of these products, toxic wastes are produced and these can do further damage to the environment.

Products that are photodegradable biodegrade only when exposed to sunlight. A popular example is the plastic “polybag” in which many magazines now arrive protected in the mail. But the likelihood that such items will be exposed to sunlight while buried dozens of feet deep in a landfill is little to none. And if they do photodegrade at all, it is only likely to be into smaller pieces of plastic, contributing to the microplastic population of the oceans.

Processing may inhibit biodegradation Biodegradable items may not break down in landfills if the industrial processing they went through prior to their useful days converted them into forms unrecognizable by the microbes and enzymes that facilitate biodegradation. A typical example is petroleum, which biodegrades easily and quickly in its original form: crude oil. But when petroleum is processed into plastic, it is no longer biodegradable, and as such can clog up landfills indefinitely.

Biodegradable/greener plastic water bottles and shopping bags are in fact extremely durable and add to the plastic debris in the ocean, instead of being a solution to the ubiquitous problem of litter in the oceans.

A lot of plastics labelled biodegradable, like shopping bags, will only break down in temperatures of 50C and that is not the ocean. They are also not buoyant, so they’re going to sink, and hence not exposed to UV and break down.

To confuse matters further, many bioplastics are made to look like real plastics and end up in the recycling bin where they cause problems for the plastic recycling process.

What can you do as customers to judge the viability of a biodegradable product claim:

Look for third party certifications for accurate information

Read the packaging label carefully

Choose packaging made from natural products

Do research online to further determine the biodegradability of the packaging in terms of its composition and the time it takes to break down.

Element packaging offers a full range of fully accredited products that are home compostable, compostable and biodegradable and made from bagasse, cornstarch, paper, card, PLA, bamboo fiber and wood.

The home compostable range including coffee cups and printed food boxes has a unique plant starch lining that can degrade in 30 degrees celcius, thus making it home compostable and does not need to go into an industrial composting facility , lining.

The biodegradable range including plates and bowls are made are made from cornstarch.

The compostable range made from bagasse include coffee cups and lunch boxes.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/using-mushrooms-to-grow-packages2020-05-11T10:00:00+01:002020-05-11T10:00:00+01:00Using Mushrooms to Grow PackagesGurcharn Sidhu
Mushroom packaging - it looks like Styrofoam but is made of fungus roots and residues from farming. A 100% biodegradable and renewable material that can be ‘up-cycled’ directly back to nature by providing agricultural waste with home composting. Packaging has been using more plant-based materials and the technology has come a long way in using plant-based materials. One of the latest works is a substance called MycoComposite.

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Mushroom packaging - it looks like Styrofoam but is made of fungus roots and residues from farming. A 100% biodegradable and renewable material that can be ‘up-cycled’ directly back to nature by providing agricultural waste with home composting.

Packaging, especially food packaging is common place and necessary as it does serve an important function of protecting and maintaining the value of the product as well as playing an important role in its distribution. But packaging technology must not only play these important functions, it must keep an eye on energy and material costs and be mindful of any environmental impact such as pollution and disposal of municipal solid waste that is, aim to be sustainable.

The truth of the matter is that currently, 39% of all plastics produced are for packaging. One of the worst culprits is plastic food packaging and cutlery. These single use items lines the beaches and cover the ocean's surface. Most cannot be recycled due to the type of plastic they are made out of. Melinda Watson, the founder of Raw Foundation said, “A staggering 72% of plastic packaging is not recovered at all: 40% is ladled, and 32% leaks out the collection system.”

However, simply removing plastic from food packaging is not as sustainable as one might think. Plastic packaging has its uses as it is more flexible and lighter than alternatives such as glass and card. This reduces transportation costs and the carbon emissions that come with them. Furthermore, it has the potential to preserve food and prevent its wastage. More than 50% of food waste takes place in households and nearly 20% is wasted during processing.

Plastic packaging may be a necessary evil to reduce this high level of waste in both areas. But with the plastic pollution escalating there is increasing interest and demand for sustainable packaging. We need to think of ways of not only reducing and reusing plastics wherever possible, but also of sourcing for more renewable materials for our packaging.

Packaging technology has come a long way in using plant-based materials. One of the latest works is a substance called MycoComposite, a mushroom base material production by Ecovative mycelium technology design of technology in 2010. Completely natural and biodegradable, it can grow in a controlled environment in a week and takes 30 days to decompose; and if kept dry, can be reused. Using mushrooms inherent growth power, the manufacturing process, packaging can be manufactured with minimal energy use. The manufacturing process begins by mixing fungus sprouts, or mycelia, with seedlings or other residues from agriculture. Mycelet consists of a network of wire-like cells that act as a natural adhesive. Without the need for light, water or chemical additives, the mycelium grows by and around the residues to the desired packaging form. After one week, growth is stopped by a drying and heat treatment process. The result is a fully natural composite material that has similar material properties like synthetic foam plastics such as Styrofoam, without the inherent toxicity of Styrofoam to man and the planet. MycoComposite is also proven to have polystyrene insulation and fire resistance properties.

However, ‘the mushroom’ only got the spotlight when the furniture giant Ikea announced that it will replace Styrofoam packaging with MycoComposite for all its products.

Element Packaging Ltd offers food packaging made from plant-based materials without compromising strength and durability. Element is a uniquely compostable brand which has both character and conscience, and in fashionable and vibrant urban colours.

Element packaging offers a full range of products that are home compostable, compostable and biodegradable and made from bagasse, cornstarch, paper, card, PLA, bamboo fiber and wood. The home compostable range has a lining that can degrade in 30 degrees celcius, thus making it home compostable and it does not need to go into an industrial composting facility.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/climate-action-20202020-04-24T13:13:00+01:002020-04-24T13:13:44+01:00Climate Action 2020Gurcharn SidhuClimate change was one of the top three environmental issues facing Britons in 2019, our hottest decade and Climate Action is the theme for Earth Day 2020. A study in 2013 found that 97% of climate scientists agree that climate change is occurring and greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause. And suddenly, we have clearer skies and reduced carbon emissions because of the global lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Earth Day 2020 on 20 April marked the 50th anniversary of this holiday and this year’s theme is Climate Action. Climate change was one of the top three environmental issues facing Britons in 2019 - our hottest decade.

A study in 2013 found that 97% of climate scientists agree that climate change is occurring and greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause. The 2015 Paris agreement endeavour to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 in order to mitigate the 1.5 to 2 degree rise in global temperature to zero by 2050. Unfortunately political will has not been strong enough so far to initiate a massive policy shift away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable forms of energy.

But suddenly we see clear skies as air pollution levels have decreased and wildlife returning to walkways and beaches! Why? We are in a lockdown

British wildlife has been liberated and enjoying the new depopulated beaches and forest tracks. There are more sparrowhawks, stoats and deer on these once heavily populated areas; and moles are daring to come out from their underground habitats to hunt for worms. When we move aside, nature moves in. But will we give them a shock when we move back and encroach upon their habitats?

Another accidental positive benefit, albeit a temporary one, is that the skies are clearer and air pollution has decreased. The sudden reduction in global economic activities resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic have led to carbon emission cuts that all efforts to do so far have not achieved - 18% in China between February and March and between 40% to 60% over the recent weeks in Europe.

Sadly, the above is a temporary positive glitch, be it in the air pollution and carbon emissions levels or the return to natural wildlife environments. The question is what happens when the global lockdown is lifted and life returns to ‘normal’ by our definition?

Wildlife be shocked and retreat once again. Carbon emissions will return to its real levels and the planet will resume its march towards global warming.

Studies have shown that global warming is likely to be the greatest cause of species extinctions this century. This destruction of habitat and biodiversity has created the conditions for new viruses and diseases such as Covid-19 that has led to the current global lockdown and profound health and economic impact. Is this nature’s payback time? One wonders!

We are facing an existential threat and action is necessary. Perhaps more than extreme weather events such as droughts, wildfires, heat waves, melting Arctic ice and flooding , the increasing threat of pandemics will convince the public to put more pressure on policymakers to act urgently to curb carbon emissions and address this issue of climate change before it’s too late.

Aside from climate change, the other environmental two issues facing Britons in 2019 were dealing with waste and over packaging of goods.

When we talk about waste, the elephant in the room is PLASTIC. By the year 2050, the world’s oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish – ton for ton.

We need to make sure we dispose of our packaging carefully for collection for recycling or other treatment. We must also be mindful of the fact that recycling has its limits. Resources such as energy, water and other costs are involved to collect, sort and clean the waste. Recycling should only be an option when it saves more resources than it uses. If you have to use single-use packaging, make sure it’s compostable. Statistics have shown that recycling can only decrease the environmental footprint of plastic by a tiny amount.

The waste problem has also been laid at the door of packaging. We need packaging, but this should be kept to a minimum and sustainable. There are many ways of showing support for sustainability through packaging:

Promoting and encouraging the use of more plant-based packaging material; More and more plant-based materials which are biodegradable and easily disposed off are used for packaging.

Minimizing packaging and hence waste.

There is increasing demand for sustainable packaging from regulators as well as consumers. Consumers are more aware of what biodegradable and recyclable packaging is and what is simply ‘green washing’. Packaging needs to be genuinely produced in a sustainable way. Element Packaging advocates the use of eco-friendly and refillable containers. Element packaging is home compostable, compostable and biodegradable that does not leave nasty footprints unlike plastic packaging.

In the last blog we talked about the urgent need to be socially responsible in order to combat COVD-19. Similarly, we have another contagion which we have nursed and encourage all these years and which is causing great and lasting undesirable impact and harm to our planet to combat – plastics!

Since we use plastics in almost every part of our lives, we may not be ready to break up with plastic altogether, but there is some low-hanging fruit that can make a big difference in reducing the amount of disposable plastic in our lives.

In the last blog we talked about the urgent need to be socially responsible in order to combat COVD-19. Similarly, we have another contagion which we have nursed and encourage all these years and which is causing great and lasting undesirable impact and harm to our planet to combat – plastics!

Since we use plastics in almost every part of our lives, we may not be ready to break up with plastic altogether, but there is some low-hanging fruit that can make a big difference in reducing the amount of disposable plastic in our lives.

Here are some super easy ways to get started.

Packaging

At Budget 2020, the UK Government announced plans to implement a £200 per tonne tax on plastic packaging which does not contain at least 30% recycled plastic. This will apply to plastic packaging which has been manufactured in or imported into the UK.

The purpose of the tax is to encourage the use of recyclable plastics. Although recycling can help reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills, waterways and ecosystems, only a few types of plastics can be recycled by most municipal governments. The fraction about 9% that does get recycled still requires a lot of energy and water which just isn’t a good proposition when it comes to single-use items.

We can reduce our use of surplus or one-off-use disposable plastic items:

Never leave home without a reusable cloth/paper or biodegradable bag in your bag. You never know when you might enter a shop and be faced with a single-use plastic bag!

Buy in bulk from your grocer or local farm shop if one is available nearby – buy loose rice, cereal etc and use your own containers that you are going to store them in.

Switch to sustainable packaging made out of renewable resources for your takeaways.Renewable materials such as bio-plastics create 75% less carbon emissions than the conventional plastic. So even if bio-plastic does end up in landfill, fewer emissions have been created along the way. They do not leach BPA or other chemicals into the ground and ground water when they degrade. And, they will certainly break down a lot quicker than Polystyrene, and when they do, the end result will be what they were made from - plant matter.

Stay at home during this health crisis and support takeaways that use eco-friendly food ware. Element packaging offers a full range of home compostable, compostable and biodegradable food ware made from bagasse, cornstarch, paper, card, PLA, bamboo fiber and wood. Element food packaging is made from plant-based materials but without compromising strength and durability.

In the Kitchen

Small things that we take for granted and don’t even notice can have significant impact either way – to make the situation worse or to improve it!

The innocent tea bags while mostly made of paper-fiber, has around 20-30% polypropylene (PP, i.e. plastic). Imagine the 158 million tea bags a day ending in the landfills! Switch to loose tea and make your cuppa with an infuser.

Avoid plastic containers and go for glass jars as much as you can as they can be reused.

Use wet cloth bags to store your veggies in the fridge. They last longer. You can make these bags from cotton towels.

Bring back the good old milkman. Have your milk bottles delivered, collected and reused.

In the Bathroom

We are better at reducing, reusing and recycling in the kitchen rather than the bathroom. Go plastic-free in the bathroom as much as you can.

Switch to:

A bamboo toothbrush. The handle is made from bamboo, and the bristles on the replaceable head are biodegradable. After using it you can use the handle as a garden marker.

Disposable razor. Extend its life by cleaning and sharpening it by washing it under running water and pointing it away from you and running it down a pair of denim jeans a few times.

Have fun plucking these low-hanging fruits on the reducing plastics tree and make a difference.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/covid-19-being-socially-responsible2020-03-26T16:32:00+00:002020-03-27T12:20:59+00:00COVID-19 Being Socially ResponsibleGurcharn Sidhu
We are faced with a new virus COVID-19 that affects the lungs and airways, our very lifeline! This is the time to learn and know what belonging to a community is. All of us are in this battlefield and victory will only come if all of uswithout exceptiondo our part. It is a global pandemic and each of us, each family, each community, and each country needs to do its part to stop the pandemic. Coronavirus knows no borders or ethnicity. We are so connected that if any of the stakeholders let up, the pandemic will not stop. Globally there are now almost 500,000 cases and more than 22,000 deaths. In the UK we now almost 10,000 cases and 477 deaths.

This blog is meant to collate all the salient facts that have been disseminated so far about this health crisis.

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We are faced with a new virus COVID-19 that affects the lungs and airways, our very lifeline! This is the time to learn and know what belonging to a community is. All of us are in this battlefield and victory will only come if all of us without exception do our part. It is a global pandemic and each of us, each family, each community, and each country needs to do its part to stop the pandemic. Coronavirus knows no borders or ethnicity. We are so connected that if any of the stakeholders let up, the pandemic will not stop. Globally there are now almost 500,000 cases and more than 22,000 deaths. In the UK we now have almost 10,000 cases and 477 deaths.

We need to look after ourselves in order to be able to look after our loved ones and the community at large. For about 80% of us, coronavirus (COVID-19) will be a mild illness. But we need to protect our less vulnerable. People above 60 years of age and those with underlying medical conditions, regardless of the age.

The safest premise that we should work on is that none of us know who can infect us. This is because if one person is infected, he/she will not know until 14 days later. Meanwhile, he/she can easily infect 10 people in a day depending on his/her activity. The 10 people, thinking they are healthy can infect another 100 people and so on...

Given the very limited testing kits and NHS resources, we have three ready tools at hand to stop the spread of COVID-19

Washing hands

Social Distancing

Self-isolation

Washing Hands

Washing our hands for 20 seconds properly interrupts the spread of germs. Rinse your hands with clean running water, then turn off the tap (to save water) and apply soap to your hands working up a lather. Make sure you apply the lather by rubbing the front and back of your hands, between your fingers and under your fingernails. Then wash your hands with water. The temperature of the water does not matter, though warm water is more comfortable and will encourage you to wash your hands more often and properly.

Keeping washing your hands at intervals and especially when you come back from a trip to the supermarket or pharmacy, before doing kitchen chores and eating. If you need to cough, do it in a tissue and bin it straight away. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE.

Self Isolation

If you are displaying the symptoms, then you need to isolate yourself for 7 days. If you are living with a family, then everyone needs to be in self-isolation for 14 days.

If you are living alone:

Order online and instruct to leave deliveries at the doorstep.

Have contact details of family and friends on hand for help with groceries and medication.

spent time gardening as spring is here and the weather is getting kinder;

do home yoga and exercise, there are many online videos to follow;

catch up on your reading, knitting, sewing, watching movies etc.

If you are living with a family

Stay in a well ventilated bedroom with the door closed.

Use a separate bathroom and if sharing, use the bathroom last and wipe with anti-bacterial spray or wipes after use.

Do not share towels and do the laundry separately.

Either use separate crockery or ensure crockery is washed on a high temperature in the dishwasher.

Put waste in a double black bag and disposed off separately.

The rest of the family need to self-isolate from anyone else for 14 days too.

Make being good contagious. If you are ok, find out if anyone in your neighbourhood needs help and support and do so without compromising yours and their health safety.

Social distancing

This in effect means physical distancing, i.e. keeping a safe distance of at least two metres from anyone else except your immediate family when making the necessary trips outside the house. You can still keep in touch with friends and extended family though the phone and social media. Keep in touch without touching! No handshakes, hugs or kisses.

UK is in lockdown from Monday 23 March 2020. This means you will only be allowed to leave your home for the following very limited purposes:

shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible

one form of exercise a day - for example a run, walk, or cycle - alone or with members of your household;

any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person; and

travelling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home.

A few other quirky issues and myths

Wearing masks

Masks are in short supply and the NHS staffs need them more than you and me. If you are not showing symptoms, then wearing a mask is unnecessary. In fact with a mask on you are more likely to touch your face! The mask is more to protect others from your respiratory droplets if you think you might be infected and really need to make an essential trip out of the house. If you think you may be infected, you should actually not be going out at all!

Panic buying

We have heard reports of panic buying and the empty shelves in the supermarkets despite being told repeatedly that there is no supply shortage. Why the panic buying, especially for toilet paper? It is a perceived scarcity and panic buying is contagious. It is our herd mentality. But we need to stop it as we are severely disadvantaging the vulnerable who cannot fight for stuff and the overworked NHS staff from getting their necessary daily supplies. All we need is a two weeks supply at any one time in case of having to self-isolate.

Myths

There are many of these floating around to stop being infected:

Eating garlic will stop you from getting infected. While garlic has some health benefit, it will not.

Drinking water every 15 minutes to wash down any lurking virus in the throat into the gut!

Not eating ice-cream!

Drinking Colloidal sliver does not boost immunity, and in fact can damage your kidneys and cause a seizure turning your skin blue.

Don’t fall prey to misinformation; go to the following websites for your information and updates on COVID-19:

While we are totally absorbed by COVID-19, a contagion that is literally causing us to stop in our tracks because of the harm it can do to us and our loved ones, we must not forget another contagion we have nursed and encourage all these years and which is causing great and lasting undesirable impact and harm to our planet – plastics! As all eateries, restaurants and hotels are closed, most of them are turning to takeaways to sustain their business. Whilst practicing self –isolation and social distancing we can still take a break from cooking by ordering takeaways. But please ensure that we support takeaways that use eco-friendly food ware. Let’s not forget our diseased planet.

Element packaging offers a full range of fully accredited eco-friendly products food ware that are home compostable, compostable and biodegradable and made from bagasse, cornstarch, paper, card, PLA, bamboo fiber and wood.

Now is the test to be better than ourselves for each one of us as well as our leaders. Let’s rise to it.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/my-freedom-day-the-case-for-positive-choices2020-03-10T11:00:00+00:002020-03-14T14:16:20+00:00My Freedom Day – the case for positive choices.Gurcharn Sidhu
What does freedom mean to you?

Whilst we cannot understate the importance of human slavery, which is what My Freedom Day 2020 is about, we could also examine our ‘slavery’ to other negative things such as plastics and plastic packaging!

When we choose between the plastic and eco-friendly packaging are we exercisingpositive or negative freedomin our choices?

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Tomorrow, 11 March 2020 is My Freedom Day and this year it is a student driven event to raise awareness of modern slavery. The objective is to highlight modern slavery and celebrate freedom.

What does freedom mean to you?

Whilst we cannot understate the importance of human slavery, which is what My Freedom Day is about, we could also examine our ‘slavery’ to other negative things such as plastics and plastic packaging!

When we choose between the plastic and eco-friendly packaging are we exercising positive or negative freedom in our choices?

Try warping your head around these profound freedom ‘sayings’:

Freedom to choose but not free from the consequences.

I am free to choose but am responsible for my choices.

Freedom is not the absence of commitments but the ability to choose and commit to what is best for me.

It is not your freedom to choose that makes you free but what you choose in that freedom that makes you free.

Freedom means never ever taking it for granted.

Do you agree and subscribe to any of the above?

Even in our modern times, freedom can mean things many of us take for granted:

to a woman in a middle eastern country, simply being able to drive a car;

to the Rohingyas, to live freely in the country they have called theirs, their whole life;

to a Syrian child, to play under a blue sky without fear of being bombed.

To us at Element Packaging UK, freedom means having the freedom to choose – fantastic! But it does not end there. Our choices can have consequences that often have far-reaching effects. Hence freedom to Element Packaging UK means having the freedom to choose to live in harmony with the environment in a sustainable manner. And this is evidenced by our compostable and biodegradable carbon friendly foodware made from plant-based materials whose primary ingredients are from renewable resources.

Positive freedom is the freedom to choose, control and decided one’s own life and destiny – to act instead of being acted upon. Taylor calls positive freedom an “exercise concept” of freedom because it involves discriminating between all possible opportunities, and exercising the options that are most in line with your real will and what you truly want in life. You are your own master.

Negative FreedomNegative freedom is freedom from external interference that prevents you from doing what you want, when you want to do it. Taylor calls negative freedom an “opportunity concept” of freedom because it gives you access to a range of desirable opportunities, regardless of whether you decide to take advantage of those opportunities or not. You are slave to no man.

Plastic vs. Eco-friendly DisposablesLet’s look at one everyday common pervasive choice we make – choosing between plastic packaging and eco-friendly sustainable ones. We can choose either as there are no restrictions and both are available in the marketplace. But are we exercising positive or negative freedom in our choices?

More often than not we gravitate towards using plastic foodware instead of eco-friendly ones. This is negative freedom. No doubt there are no laws to prevent us from using plastics but it would mean contributing to plastic waste in our environment. It is our habits and nonchalance towards sustainability that drives our choice and in the long run we face far-reaching negative impact.

On the other hand, knowing the harmful impact of plastics and choosing to reduce or altogether avoid using plastics, we are exercising positive freedom as we consciously make choices that will protect our environment and ultimately impact us in a positive way.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/happy-a-sustainable-valentine-s-day-aka-a-sustainable-loving-relationship2020-02-13T20:29:00+00:002020-02-13T20:29:59+00:00Happy A Sustainable Valentine’s Day -aka a sustainable loving relationship!Gurcharn Sidhu
Wishing you a Sustainable Valentine’s Day, aka a sustainable loving relationship with your partner and the planet.

Cuddle together to share body warmth; shower together to save water; plant a tree together and write love pledges on a sticker at the base; coo sweet nothings over a home cooked organic meal while sipping organic wine in the glow of bees wax candles!

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Wishing you a Sustainable Valentine’s Day, aka a sustainable loving relationship with your partner and the planet.

Cuddle together to share body warmth; shower together to save water; plant a tree together and write love pledges on a sticker at the base; coo sweet nothings over a home cooked organic meal while sipping organic wine in the glow of bees wax candles!

But what about the traditional cards, flowers and chocolates?

Valentine’s Day is here again and it is estimated that one billion Valentine’s Day cards will be sent worldwide, 36 million boxes of chocolates and countless pesticide-sprayed flowers will be given! Its impact as with every commercialised celebration will be big whether it is a day we take the opportunity to express love and appreciation or a day dedicated to consumerism and senseless spending on over-priced heart-shaped boxes of carbon-footprint-heavy chocolates.

In expressing our love to those who are dear and important to us, we forgot the one very important relationship we have with the Planet. Let’s include our Planet in the list of ‘person’ we need to show our love and care for, and go for an eco-friendly Valentine ’s Day.

Here are some Green Gift ideas for this Valentine’s Day

If you still believe in giving cards, flowers and chocolates.......

Cards - opt for those on recycled paper or make your own.

But giving a card is not the only way to express love and appreciation. In fact buying one and send it off does not take much effort. However, a hand-written letter (something that we seem to have lost in this high-tech and fast society) or a poem or long list of the things you love about the person will be more appreciated as it shows that you took time and effort to express your love.

Flowers

Just keep "green" in mind when surrounded by all that red. Choose potted plants and organic or local flowers whenever possible. Or take time and effort to create origami roses from recycled material. You will be much appreciated after labouring over small pieces of papers for someone special.

Chocolates

Opt for fair-trade and organic chocolates. Or make your own heart-shaped fudge or organic red velvet cupcakes. What more, spend a romantic evening or family bonding time making these together.

Aside from the traditional cards, flowers and chocolates, here are many other types of gifts and ways to show love and appreciation.

Ideas for pampering gifts

If you have the time and energy, there are many ideas and instructional websites to help you create your own pampering gifts such as, all-natural fragrance from essential oils; bath bombs; bath soaps from honey, olive, lavender, coconut and peppermint; and green tea and sugar scrubs.

Dinner Date

If your idea of celebrating the day is going out, choose a local restaurant specializing in organic or locally grown food. Otherwise, an even more eco-romantic option would be to cook a meal with locally grown organic ingredients, serve organic wine and set the mood with soy or bees wax earth-friendly candles.

Personalise the Gifts

For someone who

loves coffee, give high-quality fair-trade coffee

is into gardening, give seed bombs

is a nature lover, plant a tree together to symbolise your relationship and endurance or book a retreat in a wildlife reserve or natural park

is into health spa and therapy, give gift certificates for a massage, naturopath or health spa session.

loves jewellery, make the accessories from recycled material. Instructables teaches you how to make necklaces, bracelets, and earrings out of old magazines.

has everything and you are lost as to what to give, food is always welcome and makes a great gift. For example, homemade goodies such as baked cookies, salsa, jam or pasta sauce which are healthier than the store-bought versions as the ingredients can be controlled.

The Gift of Your Time.

This is the best gift of all as only you can give it. To top it, most probably it will cost you nothing and you can ensure no or minimal impact on the environment as you are in control. For example:

Doing the dishes even if it’s not your turn could go further in strengthening a relationship than a bouquet of red roses.

Babysitting for a relative of friend will provide much relief and appreciation.

Helping a relative, friend with washing the car, gardening or cleaning out the garage will be a welcome change,

Spending the afternoon with an elderly neighbour will provide immeasurable feeling of being wanted.

Since gifts of time are hard to wrap, you can write out your offer on a gift certificate or coupon, as in, “This coupon is good for one free night of babysitting.”

Enjoy the day and the opportunities it provides with a clear conscience.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/eco-issues-for-2020-and-beyond2020-01-31T11:15:00+00:002020-01-31T11:15:31+00:00Eco Issues for 2020 and BeyondGurcharn Sidhu
Each and everyone one of us have and are still adding one drop at a time to this vast ocean of environmental disaster! One drop, every small action which seams inconsequential really, do slowly add up. Given the serious, widespread and long-lasting effects of our actions on the planet, any discussion on eco issues necessitates looking at not just 2020 but beyond.

There has been continuing and accelerated calls globally for action to reign in mankind activities resulting in disastrous environmental effects. Public concern about the environment has soared to record levels in the UK since the visit of Greta Thunberg to parliament and the Extinction Rebellion protests in April 2019.

The environment is now cited by people as the third most pressing issue facing the nation in tracking data from the polling company YouGov that began in 2010. Environment was ranked after Brexit and health, but is ahead of the economy, crime and immigration

Each and everyone one of us have and are still adding one drop at a time to this vast ocean of environmental disaster! One drop, every small action which seams inconsequential really, do slowly add up. Given the serious, widespread and long-lasting effects of our actions on the planet, any discussion on eco issues necessitates looking at not just 2020 but beyond.

When we talk about waste, the elephant in the room is PLASTIC. By the year 2050, the world’s oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish – ton for ton. This speaks volumes of the food and beverage industry for the painful repercussions of plastic packaging production.

Perhaps this mass production of plastic waste wouldn’t be so detrimental to our safety and environment if it didn’t take 700 years for a single bottle to begin decomposing. The combination of our waste production with the time needed for decomposition has led to the creation and growth of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”—an area of the Pacific Ocean composed of plastic waste and measured at the size of Texas. While addressing these problems can be done individually, by including practices such as bringing your own reusable bags to grocery stores or requesting that your coffee cup is served without a plastic lid, advocating environment friendly food packaging, the food and beverage industry leaders must take responsibility in ensuring that their production models are mindful of an ever-lasting footprint on the environment and, subsequently, the global population.

Climate Change

While 97 percent of climate scientists agree that climate change is occurring and greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause, political will has not been strong enough so far to initiate a massive policy shift away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable forms of energy. 2019 was the hottest decade. Perhaps more extreme weather events such as droughts, wildfires, heat waves, melting Arctic ice and flooding will convince the public to put more pressure on policymakers to act urgently to curb carbon emissions and address this issue before it’s too late.

Cutting carbon emissions need to be done not only from cars, factories and power plants but also from the way the world produces food and manages land if we are to reach the target of zero by 2050. Not only have our food production methods caused climate change, this potent causal relationship also means climate change itself has threatened the world’s food supply.

In 2015, most countries signed the Paris accord that aims to keep global warming “well under” 2C – and to do all they can to limit this temperature increase to 1.5C. UK is the first G7 country to enshrine a new commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 into law. However, the government’s approach is still incremental, based on making green-tinged tweaks to business hoping that we will somehow creep towards our target of net-zero.

To achieve the 1.5C limit, countries have to increase their commitments five-fold, starting NOW, according to the UNEP Emissions Gap report released for Madrid.

Overpackaging of Goods

The waste problem has been laid at the door of packaging but at the same time packaging, especially food packaging, has also been viewed as playing a crucial functional role. It is true that food packaging serves a fundamental functional role. It preserves the food product by protecting it and extending its shelf life on their journey from production to consumption. Thus it prevents waste and also enables food to be kept fresher for longer at home with re-sealable packs, dispensing systems.

We need packaging, but this should be kept to a minimum and sustainable. Element packaging advocates the use of eco-friendly and refillable containers. Element packaging is home compostable, compostable and biodegradable that does not leave nasty footprints unlike plastic packaging. There is increasing demand for sustainable packaging from regulators as well as consumers. Consumers are more aware of what biodegradable and recyclable packaging is and what is simply ‘greenwashing’. Packaging needs to be genuinely produced in a sustainable way.

There are many ways of showing support for sustainability through packaging:

Promoting and encouraging the use of more plant-based packaging material; More and more plant-based materials which are biodegradable and easily disposed off are used for packaging.

Minimizing packaging and hence waste.

Making sure we dispose of our packaging out carefully for collection for recycling or other treatment. We must also be mindful of the fact that recycling has its limits. Resources such as energy, water and other costs are involved to collect, sort and clean the waste. Recycling should only be an option when it saves more resources than it uses.

Moving forward.....

Be environmentally conscious. Forego the plastic baggies, skip the beef and harness the sun to light up your life.

Imagine....

Homes powered by windmill and solar panels that generate surplus electricity to feed back into national grid, providing a small income;

shared electric cars runs on hydrogen;

toilet and household waste water sent to family water purification plant for recycling;

delivery made by a refugee from Timbaktoo whose country was drowned by a sea level rise in 2019 ........

Remember, each and everyone one of us have and are still adding one drop at a time to this vast ocean of environmental disaster! One drop, every small action which seams inconsequential really but do slowly add up.

But hey! no harm in repeating something that will benefit all of us. And these very doable green resolutions that we will find easy to stick to and we will not slip into our old convenient eco-unfriendly ways. Remember, big things often have small beginnings and so let’s go waste-free at the individual level and do our bit to support the UN resolution to stop plastic from entering the ocean. So for the eco-slackers, here are some easy Green New Year resolutions. These simple resolutions will help you save money, cut your carbon footprints and decrease your home waste.

Use Reusables for these everyday activities

Stop buying bottled water Use a simple filtering pitcher at home and when on the go use reusable bottle made of glass, aluminium or recycled plastic. You’ll not only save the earth but money for bottled water on your shopping list

Take it along an insulated travel mug of your home-made coffee instead of buying coffee from cardboard ups and carrying sleeves.

Use reusables such as shopping bags (so as not to forget, keep them handy in your bag or car boot), drinking cups and razors. Remember: if you do need to use disposables, go for the 100% biodegradable ones such as Element products.

Cut back on paper towels and wipes. Use cotton cloth and fabric napkins at home and drop them in the wash and reuse.

Reduce Energy Usage

Eliminate Phantom PowerUnplug the charger for your cell phone, mp3 player, e-reader, or iPad — but if you really can't be bothered, then use power strips to turn off all your appliances at once; invest in chargers that stop drawing current when the device's battery is full.Put your television, DVD player, game system, and stereo on a timer so they automatically shut off overnight.Unplug all appliances when not in use

Replace your light bulbsReplacing your light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights which last longer than traditional bulbs, cut your energy use by as much as 80 percent.

Utilize the natural light coming into your home during the daytime. If you can’t keep the lights off completely, utilize dimmer switches to avoid wasting energy. .

Buy local and organic produce to support your local farmers and communities and cut down on your carbon footprint. Use your local CSA program do the hard part for you by putting together a box of their best produce each week — and, if you're really feeling lazy, have it delivered right to your door so you get fresh, local fruits and vegetables without giving up your lazy coffee-and-crossword weekend mornings.

Use a bike for short trips to the nearby convenience store for your bread or milk, after dinner snack at your favourite spot, etc. Ride your bike for trips shorter than 2 miles and you could cut your carbon footprint significantly, save money on gasoline and car maintenance, and increase your fitness level — all at the same time.

Become a weekend vegetarianCutting meat out of your diet just two days a week can decrease your carbon footprint by about 1/3 of a ton. And since doubling a recipe rarely adds any time to your prep work, you can make extras to eat throughout the week (and trim your carbon footprint even more).

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/christmas-leftovers-make-good-use-of-them2019-12-23T00:00:00+00:002019-12-23T00:00:00+00:00Christmas Leftovers – Make Good Use of ThemAdam Petyt
Here are four main things that you usually end up with after your Christmas celebration – turkey, tree, cards and jumpers – and have problems with putting them to good use without being accused of being wasteful and an enemy of the environment!

Christmas Tree

Real Christmas Trees are more eco-friendly as the fake ones produce more Co2 due to its manufacturing, transportation and not to mention disposal. And if you did use a real Christmas tree, continue your effort at being environmentally friendly by disposing of it in the following ways:

Leave it in its stand and place it in a bare spot in your garden where enjoy it for the rest of the winter and also more importantly will provide winter shelter for the birds;

If there is no stand, lay it on its side to provide shelter for the rabbits;

Chop off the evergreen branches and use them to protect your perennials during the winter;

Use the thin branches to provide a base for your compost pile – stack them four to six inches high. The mulch can be used as fertilizers in the spring;

Any leftovers should be consumed within two days and if you think you have ordered a turkey way above your need, then you should put whatever you cannot consume within two days in the freezer. Debone and chop them into small pieces, wrap them properly and put into a sealed container, ready for use later.

To use your leftovers within the two days;

Stock - the carcass can be slow boiled to make a stock to be used to cook rice, making a perfectly flavoured rice or used in a casserole, soup or soup noodles.

The debone meat can be cut into small pieces and used:

in fried rice and noodle dishes - spicy interesting Asian dishes;

turkey apple sandwiches – mix the meat with chopped apple and walnuts, season with pepper and salt and a squeeze of lemon.

Christmas Cards

Christmas cards come with defined motifs and shapes, making it easy to recycle them for other uses:

Gift tags – cut out the pictures – Santa, reindeer, Christmas pudding etc, either making the actual image into the tag or a typical luggage tag; punch a hole at the top and insert a ribbon through or attaché the tag by tape to your gift.

Garland – either punch out the shapes from your card, regular shapes or follow the pictures and string them to make a garland. This can be used as your Christmas deco for the following year.

Motifs for your gift bags – cut out the images and stick them to your gift bags.

Jumpers

Come Christmas and we all head to the stores to get jumpers for the whole family to get ourselves into the festive mood. At best, we use these jumpers twice as we outgrow them in size or fashion. What a waste!

Turn them into the following:

Hats, gloves, scarves, throws or even dog jumper! Your pet will be eternally grateful to you in these cold winter months.

In this festive season of giving and sharing, let’s spare a thought for our long-suffering planet. Let’s reduce the environmental impact of a season that can easily descend into waste, debt and stress with a few quick and easy changes to the celebrations.﻿﻿

In this festive season of giving and sharing, let’s spare a thought for our long-suffering planet. Let’s reduce the environmental impact of a season that can easily descend into waste, debt and stress with a few quick and easy changes to the celebrations.

Re-gift with a clear conscience – keeping a gift you don’t need is wasteful. But note that re-gifting has to be done carefully without offending the original giver.

2. Gift wrapping - In the UK we collectively throw away 226,800 miles of wrapping paper, enough to stretch nine times around the world!

Use environmentally friendly wrapping paper made using fibres such as hemp, or paper using recycled content

Avoid buying glossy foil or metallic wrapping paper which is difficult to recycle as it wrinkles and creases easily when the gift is being unwrapped.

Reuse gift wrap where possible. Do not write the name of the person on the paper.

Use tape sparingly, or not at all and if you use ribbon to finish of your wrapping, you may not need to use tape. By not using tape, more of the wrapping paper can be reclaimed, and it's easier for the recipient to save the wrapping for reuse.

3.Christmas Tree - choose the more sustainable choice - a live tree. Although plastic trees are reusable, they are made from PVC and use up resources in both the manufacture and shipping. And often they are discarded too when repeated use make them less attractive, landing in landfill where their plastic content make them last forever!

Live trees on the other hand are renewable resource that really smell like Christmas and,

replanted regularly on tree farms

almost ninety percent recycled into mulch

usually grown and sold locally , saving both transportation costs and added air pollution

potted trees can be reused for 2 to 3 years without having to plant or re-pot the tree. Re-pot and replant for longer use.

4. Christmas Cards - No doubt store-bought cards are rich, elegant and expensive but a waste of a huge amount of natural resources for a throw-away item. Home-made cards may not be professional looking but are personal, just as appreciated and making them can be a fun activity - resources include last year calendar with large colourful images on heavy paper, children’s’ artwork.

5. Food – waste not and want not! Recent figures suggest the UK chucks out the equivalent of two million turkeys, five million Christmas puddings and a truly shocking 74 million mince pies.

Cook once, eat twice.

Carefully plan what you buy, using leftovers and freezing table scraps.

Buy locally-grown, organic food, from your local farmers' shop or market where possible.

Try a Vegan Christmas Dinner for a change.

6. Christmas Lighting and Decoration.

Reduce the size of your outdoor lighting display. A smaller presentation of lights can still be attractive and more appropriate in the 'season of giving'. Saving electricity is also a way of giving, since conserving resources benefits everyone.

Use LED lights for house and Christmas tree lighting. LED (Light Emitting Diode) holiday lights use up to 95% less energy than larger, traditional holiday bulbs and last up to 100,000 hours when used indoors. LED holiday lights use .04 watts per bulb, 10 times less than mini bulbs and 100 times less than traditional holiday bulbs. As an added bonus, if one of the LED lights burns out the rest of the strand will stay lit.

Outdoor Mini-lights will also save energy.

Turn off tree lights and outdoor house decorative lighting at bedtime. It's simply a waste of energy to leave the holiday lights on at night after everyone's gone to sleep. Use timers so that you don’t have to remember to run them off.

Go for Christmas candles made from soy, beeswax or natural vegetable-based wax. Paraffin candles are made from petroleum residue and are no good for your health or for the environment.

Use natural items for decorations such as pine cones, twigs, berries, sprigs of evergreen plants and oranges to create wreaths, centrepieces and simple ornaments.

7. Heating - Turn down thethermostat by one degree. What with a house full of people and the oven on full pelt, your house will be warmer than usual. Plus, you'll not only save carbon and money but it's a good excuse to don your most outrageous Christmas jumper.

9. Hosting a party? Using reusable will definitely be more eco-friendly. But you do not want to spend your Christmas in front of the sink, use 100 percent biodegradable and compostable party ware such as Cornware. Not only is Cornware a friend of the planet, it is of high quality, leach-proof, non-toxic, freezable and microwaveable tableware and comes in beautiful party colours at a low cost.

Have a Merry Green Christmas, from us at Element UK.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/paper-or-bioplastic-straws-if-you-must-use-them2019-12-09T00:00:00+00:002019-12-09T00:00:00+00:00Paper or Bioplastic Straws? If You Must Use Them...Adam Petyt

Element Paper Straws

Why fight the straw?

Traditional Straws are made of polypropylene, a petroleum based plastic known for its cheap and easy to produce nature. Polypropylene has a high melting point making it suitable for its use with hot food and resists acids and bases. This plastic is characterized by its long carbon chain, that reacts with oxygen and UV rays. The plastic breaks down and leaches toxins and microplastics into the soil and ocean.

While the best solution to the straw epidemic may be to completely eliminate them from our lives, we must realize that there are situations where that may not be an option. If we must use a straw then we might as well do it in the most eco friendly way possible. Current eco friendly solutions to the problem of straw pollution include bioplastics and paper alternatives. Although all these options are better than the current polypropylene based straw, each have their benefits and limitations.

Bioplastics

Bioplastics are plastics that are biomass based not petroleum based. Biomass such as cornstarch and bio oils creates a biodegradable product that can have the same thermal and physical properties as polypropylene. The main difference between bioplastics and regular plastic is the end of its life. While petroleum based straws do “disappear” they do so over hundreds of years. And over those hundreds of years they break down into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic. These microplastics find their way into the food chain with fish digesting and absorbing the plastic chemicals that are results of these straws. With bioplastics this outcome can be avoided. With faster breakdown times in controlled decomposition, bioplastics can be discarded alongside food waste to be biodegraded in months. Helping to avoid the great pacific garbage patch, and leave the fish healthier and the planet happier.

Paper

An even better alternative to bioplastics are uncoated paper straws. They use no petroleum to make and decompose even faster than bioplastic straws. Along with the rate at which they decompose, they do not affect the organic nature of the compost. While bioplastics can decompose into soil under controlled conditions, paper straws freely decompose into nature. If a straw accidentally makes its way out of the cycle of disposal and slips off into your neighborhood park, you can rest easy knowing it will only be there a few weeks before it melts away.

Which is better?

Although the time of use for a straw is dismissible, the impact it has on the environment after that use cannot be ignored. Both the bioplastic and the paper straws are better than the petroleum based straw in regards to the effect on the environment, but what straw is the top contender? Bioplastic straws are made of a plastic and organic blend, making it easier for the straw to break down over time. Paper is made of 100% organic material that simply transfers back into the environment in which it came. If you are looking to completely rid your straw of all guilt but compromise some rigidity, the paper straw is your best bet. If you want to sacrifice some green aspects of your straw while maintaining a rigid, durable nature, then bioplastics are your answer.

Paper Straws by Element

Looking for an eco friendly straw? Try Element paper straws! Element straws are made with FSC certified paper. They are 100% compostable, 100% customizable and a great way to make your money work a little greener.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/sustainability-in-food-start-ups-that-will-not-cost-you-an-arm-and-a-leg2019-12-05T00:00:00+00:002019-12-05T00:00:00+00:00Sustainability in Food Start Ups That Will Not Cost You an Arm and a Leg!Adam PetytSustainability in Food Start Ups that will not cost you an arm and a leg!

Here are some simple takeaways:

Have varying portion sizes on your menu including kid and senior meals and side orders, especially chips – the main culprit. Your customers will appreciate your giving them an option not to leave food on their plate while at the same time being kinder on their pockets.

Highlight on the menu that are more sustainable; where the food is ethically and locally sourced or a seasonal produce.

Highlight vegetables or meat substitutes as options that are brilliant and modern alternative and not as an act of going without or giving it the ethical spin.

Use leftovers in the kitchen for stock, soups or stews and work them into your menu. This is a sure money saver and waste reducer.

If you find that some of the ingredients for your meals often go to waste because you cannot use it be the end of its validity period, purchase wisely and in smaller packages.

Get to know your local composting facility to send your food waste to. Remember food left on the plate, over ordered stock gone bad and kitchen waste often land up in the landfills where it generate methane as it decomposes – a worst culprit than CO2 for the environment. On top of this, the standard rate for sending your food waste to the landfill is currently £82.60 per tonne and from 1 April 2016 this will be raised to £84.40 per tonne!

Be prepared with your own composting bins at food fairs if the organiser is not able to.

Donate your leftover food and stock to charities.

Work with biofuel producers and turn your waste oil into fuel. Remember waste oil if not disposed off correctly will not only harm the environment but can clog drains etc and proof very costly.

And lastly, use biodegradable food ware such as Element 100% biodegradable food warethat can be easily binned with your food waste. Ask your local composting facility if they will accept your biodegradables packaging with your food waste too.

The groundswell for sustainability is coming from all direction, be it the authorities, investors, customers or the general public. And any businessman worth his salt will know that it’s serious business when the government is pumping money for energy efficient measures and renewable. In addition, not only do customers want healthier and simpler meals whether dining in or having takeaways, they want to know the source of the food, and any green practices by the business when communicated well will put them on your side.

Some practical advice:

When it comes to putting your green practices in place, start with one area first and slowly work in more aspects of your business operation. This way the changes will not seem onerous and you will give your staff a chance to get accustom to these practices bit by bit and thus a better buy in from them.

For small business, this need not be an onerous task as simple measure to reduce energy and water waste such as switching machines off after use, turning the heating down in warm weather, or using sensors on heating and lighting to trip them off when not needed can make real savings in your energy bill. Reducing your total usage/wastage by just 20% could add as much as a 5% increase in sales to your profits.

Be constantly on the lookout for finding ways to make your operations more eco-efficient, improve them or even cut them out if need be.

You need not follow every advice as what suits another business may not necessarily suit yours.

Make changes but be practical and be sure to tell it out to your customers, organisers, media and whoever else who cares to listen.

Sustainability is no longer just a moral decision. It’s a business decision. Let’s face it employing environmentally sound policies for your business is not an option but quite crucial if you do not want to lose your competitive edge.

A bowl of nuts ready with a nutcracker is very much part of Christmas festivity and deco in any home. Aside from promoting family togetherness, the action of cracking a nut and enjoying it comes with many health benefits too.

Protein - Nuts are also a good source of protein and especially helpful with a vegan or vegetarian diet.

Vitamins and minerals - Nuts are a good source of many vitamins and minerals and fibre too. Though the nutritional value of each nut varies, most are good sources of B and E vitamins, which aid in a number of things ranging from brain development and function to skin health.

Weight Reduction - nuts also take longer to digest than other food, thus helping you to feel full longer and eat fewer calories throughout the day – helping your weight reduction routine.

Be mindful though to limit your consumption as they are high in calories. One handful can easily provide you with up to one third of your recommended daily intake of fat.

Get your bowl of walnuts, brazil nuts, hazel nuts, cashew nuts, almonds, pistachios and peanuts ready on your coffee table this festive season and enjoy the following health benefits:

Walnuts contain a number of neuroprotective compounds, including vitamin E, folate, melatonin, omega-3 fats, and antioxidants and helps to support brain health, including increasing inferential reasoning in young adults.

Almonds are rich in fibre, magnesium, protein, potassium, calcium, and zinc. And help to improve both heart health and blood cholesterol levels. They are also a good source of protein.

Cashew nuts are a good source of phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and copper, and help to relieve various conditions like constipation, insomnia, headaches and muscle cramps, as well as regulating the immune system and supporting brain function.

Brazil nuts have exceptionally high levels of selenium which can help prevent coronary artery disease, liver cirrhosis, and cancers.

Peanuts are rich in monounsaturated fats - the type of fat that is emphasized in the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet. Peanuts are good sources of vitamin E, niacin, folate, protein and manganese.

Pistachios have vitamins, minerals, fats and protein that help to promote a healthy heart, weight management, protection against diabetes and hypertension, and improved digestion.

Hazel nuts have vitamins and minerals that promote heart health. They are also a good source of fibre and contain a large amount of monounsaturated fatty acids, which help to reduce LDL cholesterol (the “bad” kind) and increase HDL cholesterol(the “good” kind).

The health benefits of nuts have been substantiated by studies that have shown that people who eat at least 20g of nuts a day have a lower risk of heart disease, cancer and other diseases. A study led by researchers from Imperial College London and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, published in the journal BMC Medicine, revealed that 20g a day - equivalent to a handful - can cut people's risk of coronary heart disease by nearly 30 percent, their risk of cancer by 15 percent, and their risk of premature death by 22 percent.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/waste-disposal-the-current-most-environment-friendly-method2019-11-26T02:01:00+00:002019-11-26T02:01:00+00:00Waste Disposal - the current most environment-friendly methodGurcharn SidhuWaste disposal - the current most environment-friendly method

Of all the waste disposal methods, recycling is regarded as the most effective current method. Recyclingserves to transform waste into products of their own genre through industrial processing. It is environmentally friendly to reuse the wastes instead of adding them to nature.

However, recycling technologies are complex and costly. The recycling operations themselves are not environmentally friendly.

Waste disposal has been a matter of concern for decades and the problem has been compounded by the humongous waste we are dealing with due to population growth and industrialisation. The main issue is grappling with expeditious and safe waste disposal. And of all the waste produced, the non-biodegradable and toxic wastes can cause potential irreparable damage to the environment and human health if not strategically disposed of. The four existing methods of waste disposal are sanitary landfill, incineration, recycling and composting. Though some advancement is being made in waste disposal methods, they are still not adequate.

Of all the waste disposal methods, recycling is regarded as the most effective current method. Recycling serves to transform waste into products of their own genre through industrial processing. It is environmentally friendly to reuse the wastes instead of adding them to nature.

However, recycling technologies are complex and costly. The recycling operations themselves are not environmentally friendly as they involve transporting, washing, sorting, chopping/shredding/re-melting, etc. Furthermore, the prices for recyclable materials have plummeted because of lower oilprices and reduced overseas demand.

There are four main categories of recyclable materials – paper, glass, aluminium and plastics.

Recycling aluminium is relatively straightforward, profitable and environmentally sound. Making a can from recycled aluminium reduces its carbon footprint by up to 95%. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gases come from just a few materials - paper, cardboard and metals like the aluminium in soda cans. Recycling one ton of metal or paper saves about three tons of carbon dioxide while recycling one ton of plastic saves only slightly more than one ton of carbon dioxide. Looks like we can accomplish more by sorting paper and aluminium cans than by worrying about yogurt containers and half-eaten dinners!

But with plastic, it is not that simple. Plastic is where recycling gets most controversial. While virtually all plastics can be recycled, many aren’t because the process is expensive, complicated and the resulting product is of lower quality than what you put in. The carbon-reduction benefits are also less clear. According to a 2017 Science Advances paper entitled Production, of the 8.3bn tonnes of virgin plastic produced worldwide, only 9% has been recycled.

Recyclable/recycled plastic releases A LOT more CO2. You make the plastic (co2 released), you break down the plastic (co2 released), you make it into a new product (co2 released), you break it down again (co2 released) and the cycle goes on and on.

If recycling means high usage of energy and resources and hence a net environment cost, then it is only a partial solution. Furthermore, many of the products that we think are ‘recycled’ are actually ‘downcycled’. For example a plastic milk carton can never be recycled into another carton but made into a lower-quality item like plastic lumber, which can’t be recycled again.

What about composting and biodegrading?

Most compostable certified food packing is only good for compostability in a commercial composting facility. The issue begins with PLA items. PLA is a plant based plastic, and is used to make cutlery, clear cups and clear deli containers. It requires a certain level of heat to start the composting process and in most home composts, this level of heat is not achieved.

Element Packaging carries not only compostable and biodegradable food packaging but a range that can be home compostable. Element Packaging by default has zero plastic therefore lesser carbon impact. Even if these products go into landfill, they do not have long term harming effects like plastic does.

To help in ensuring that its compostable certified packaging lands in the right place, Element has partnered with First Mile. First Mile collects Element’s biodegradable, compostable and home compostable food packaging waste from individual end users, helps sort it out and sends it to a composting facility. This diverts the waste from the landfill and promotes the use of environmentally friendly packaging

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/plastic-recycling-shambles2019-11-25T00:00:00+00:002019-11-25T00:00:00+00:00Plastic Recycling ShamblesAdam Petyt
That’s right, the only current sustainable option if we choose to use plastics is in shambles,

Of the 1.5m tonnes of recyclable plastic waste used by consumers in Britain in 2015 only 500,000 tonnes was recycled, according to the figures compiled by Co-op from the Recoup UK Household Plastics Collection survey. Only a third of plastic packaging used in consumer products is recycled each year, with almost two-thirds sent to landfill or incinerated.

Packaging contributes about 58% of the plastic waste generation during the year 2000 (Waste Watch 2003).

China has banned the imports of millions of tonnes of plastic waste, causing a build up of rubbish at recycling plants around the UK.

Why Plastics?

Plastic production increased markedly over the last 60 years as plastic is inexpensive, lightweight, durable and can be readily moulded into a variety of products for a wide range of applications. Around 4 per cent of world oil and gas production, a non-renewable resource, is used as feedstock for plastics and a further 3–4% is expended to provide energy for their manufactureRecycling is the only current sustainable option available to reduce this negative environmental impact of accumulation of plastic mountains in landfills and our oceans.

BUT plastic recycling is neither easy nor currently sustainable!

Plastic recycling has been around since the 1970s. How then did we land up with the plastic tide?

Check these facts:

Nearly all types of plastics can be recycled, but the extent to which they are depends on the technology available in your local council. Most councils in the UK recycle only plastic bottles as these are heavier than most other plastics and therefore relatively easy to sort.

There are more than 50 different types of plastics, making it more difficult to sort and reprocess than other materials.

Often packaging can consist of more than one polymer type, which makes it more difficult to recycle.

Plastic Pariahs

Furthermore, most of us are clueless as to what household waste can be recycled. We do not really understand our waste! There are many materials that we do not know if they count as recyclable or not. If the recyclable waste does not get into the right bin, it will end up in the landfill! Bottles that have the wrong type of plastic, or a tiny bit of drink residue, are likely to be rejected as well.

Switch to Sustainable Alternatives

Just as plastics straws, drink stirrers and cotton swabs could be banned in England under plans proposed by the UK government to reduce plastic waste and protect the world's oceans, we should move over to biodegradable/compostable packaging, such as Element tableware which is made from corn starch and 100% biodegradable.

Biodegradable packaging is a simple sustainable solution as it need not be recycled and hence eliminates the chance of landing in the wrong recycling bin and facility (note: most recyclable foodware becomes contaminated once it has food scrapping).

Element tableware can instead be disposed off as eco-friendly food waste to biodegrade under the right environment within 120 days. When micro-organism ingests and digests the starch aspect of the product, the polypropylene (PP) content in origo that is assimilated with the corn is fully broken down into compost after 90 days even if it lands in the landfill and produces a non-toxic humus waste that can be used as fertilizers.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/my-freedom-day-the-element-way2019-11-21T00:00:00+00:002019-11-21T00:00:00+00:00My Freedom Day - the Element WayAdam Petyt
What does freedom mean to you?

To us at Element UK, freedom means having the freedom to choose...

Try warping your head around these profound freedom ‘sayings’:

Freedom to choose but not free from the consequences.

I am free to choose but am responsible for my choices.

Freedom is not the absence of commitments but the ability to choose and commit to what is best for me.

It is not your freedom to choose that makes you free but what you choose in that freedom that makes you free.

Freedom means never ever taking it for granted.

Do you agree and subscribe to any of the above?

Even in our modern times, freedom can mean things many of us take for granted:

to a woman in a middle eastern country, simply being able to drive a car;

to the Rohingyas, to live freely in the country they have called theirs, their whole life;

to a Syrian child, to play under a blue sky without fear of being bombed.

To us at Element UK, freedom means having the freedom to choose – fantastic! But it does not end there. Our choices can have consequences that often have far-reaching effects.Hence freedom to Element UK means having the freedom to choose to live in harmony with the environment in a sustainable manner. And this is evidenced by our 100% biodegradable carbon friendly tableware made from Origo, whose primary ingredient is from renewable resources.

Positive freedom is the freedom to choose, control and decided one’s own life and destiny – to act instead of being acted upon. Taylor calls positive freedom an “exercise concept” of freedom because it involves discriminating between all possible opportunities, and exercising the options that are most in line with your real will and what you truly want in life. You are your own master.

Negative FreedomNegative freedom is freedom from external interference that prevents you from doing what you want, when you want to do it. Taylor calls negative freedom an “opportunity concept” of freedom because it gives you access to a range of desirable opportunities, regardless of whether you decide to take advantage of those opportunities or not. You are slave to no man.

Plastic vs. Eco-friendly DisposablesLet’s look at one everyday common pervasive choice we make – choosing between plastic disposables and eco-friendly sustainable ones. We can choose either as there are no restrictions and both is available in the marketplace. But are we exercising positive or negative freedom in our choices?

More often than not we gravitate towards using plastic disposables instead of eco-friendly ones. This is negative freedom. No doubt there are no laws to prevent us from using plastics but it would mean contributing to plastic waste in our environment. It is our habits and nonchalance towards sustainability that drives our choice and in the long run we face far-reaching negative impact.

On the other hand, knowing the harmful impact of plastics and choosing to reduce or altogether avoid using plastics, we are exercising positive freedom as we consciously make choices that will protect our environment and ultimately impact us in a positive way.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/element-uk-and-trees-for-the-future-advocates-for-a-reduction-in-the-global-carbon-footprint2019-11-18T00:00:00+00:002019-11-18T00:00:00+00:00Element UK and Trees for the Future - Advocates for a Reduction in the Global Carbon FootprintAdam Petyt

What has carbon emissions got to do with a cashew tree growing in Africa?

Plenty! That one single cashew tree stores carbon and thus removes megatons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Plants use carbon during photosynthesis and molecules of carbon to create their physical structures. It’s estimated that the average dry weight of a tree is about 50% carbon. All living things are made of carbon but trees are carbon storages for their long life-span.

Do you know that a single large tree inhales 20.3 kgs of CO2 in a year and exhales enough oxygen for a family of four for a year?

Trees for the Future, through its Forest Gardens Program have planted millions of trees across Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda and each forest garden has managed to store an average of 62.8 metric tons of carbon.

Aside from the important co-benefit of carbon storage, the Forest Gardens are improving and changing lives by planting fast-growing, soil rebuilding fruit trees that promote the long-term health of the land. They provide income and nutrition, forage and fuel-wood for families and communities to help break the cycle of generational poverty as illustrated in this...

Ousmane Willane’ StoryOusmane Willane is 50 years old and he lives in the village of Keur Lay Lobe, Senegal. There are nine people in his family alone. His uncle died and Ousmane is now taking care of his uncle’s family as well. So, there are a total of 25 mouths to feed in the household every day. Ousmane went from being a peanut farmer with few options to a forest gardener. Now he grows jujube, cashews, mangoes and wide variety of citrus trees. He has two Forest Gardens under development, one on the small plot of land just behind his family compound. That is where he has the highest value of vegetables and fruit trees. His second Forest Garden covers a two-acre plot. Four years ago, that land was totally bare. Last year he made $1,100 from the same field that struggled to produce $400 in peanuts in previous years. In addition to gardens of beans and hot peppers that grow among the trees, he also grows small plots of peanuts, millet and maize. And with the proceeds of his Forest Garden, he was able to purchase 1 horse, 2 new sheep and a horse cart to transfer products to market.

As a responsible business, and like Trees for the Future, Element UK advocates for a reduction in the global carbon footprint, both by providing eco-friendly products and supporting eco-friendly initiatives.

The process of making Element is 72% more carbon efficient than traditional plastics. Element is:

72% more carbon efficient than when compared to polystyrene;

67% more carbon efficient than when compared to polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)

55% more carbon efficient than when compared to LDPE

52% more carbon efficient than when compared to polypropylene (PP)

51% more carbon efficient than when compared to HDPE

48% more carbon efficient than when compared to LLDPE

1kg of plastic emits 3.4kg of CO2 when incinerated compared to 1.14 kg of CO2 emissions when Element is burnt.

A food could use 3 times the number of Element tableware as opposed to equivalent plastic products and still have a smaller carbon footprint.

Since last year, through its commitment to the ‘Trees for the Future’ project, Element has pledged to fund the planting of a tree for every case of Element product sold. Element is delighted to be changing lives while helping to save the planet and has so far sponsored the planting of almost 10,000 trees in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/the-plastic-straw-humble-but-harmful2019-11-14T00:00:00+00:002019-11-14T00:00:00+00:00The Plastic Straw - Humble BUT HarmfulAdam Petyt
What do you get when you order a cold drink?

The ordinary single use plastic drinking straw, inevitably. You put your lips to it without even noticing it, use it for about twenty minutes and discard it - without a thought for where it will land!

An unfortunate Costa Rican sea turtle was found with one blocking its airways!

How can one innocent inconspicuous plastic stick do so much lasting damage? This single use plastic tube has the shortest lifespan but remains on earth forever.

It is estimated that the US uses 500 million plastic straws a day and these number of straws if connected could go around the circumference of the earth two and half times!

SAVE THE PLANET ONE SIP AT A TIME

But before we go into the problem of the plastic straw, let’s see how we came to its prolific use in the first place.

The Origin of the Humble Plastic Straw

The first straw could well be the reeds used by the Mesopotamians to drink water and the Chinese to drink wine, 7000 years ago. The Egyptians used straws as a filtering mechanism to avoid drinking in insects. In the west, the practice of using straws began in 1888 and its use gained pace due to the fear of the spread of contagious diseases such as polio and tuberculosis from contaminated glassware.

In mid 20th century, though the spread of disease became less of a concern, the introduction of fast food such as McDonald brought with it disposable food packaging and more straws. In the 1960s a major innovation took place when plastics began replacing paper and straws became oil-based single use items.

Today, straws are so much a part of our everyday life that we drink using them by default and without a second thought.

The Problem with Plastic Straws

Aside from ending in a sea animal’s unlikely body parts, this thin plastic tube which is made from polypropylene and polystyrene DOES NOT biodegrade EVER.

Every piece of plastic remains eternally in our environment .The very nature of its chemical composition makes it impossible to biodegrade. At most, it might photo degrade into tiny pieces which are then very easily ingested by marine animals and to us through the food chain.

If recycled, only a small percentage goes through the process and only once, after which it lands in the landfill and the ocean.

If incinerated, it releases toxic dioxins into the air which settles into our crops and through the food chain bioaccumulate into humans and animals.

The Solution.....

It is easy to pass the buck - consumers blame businesses, businesses put the onus on the demands of the consumers - and we all quietly carry on with our ingrained harmful habits. Both businesses and individuals need to change their attitude and behaviour.

We are seeing more and more calls to reduce the use of plastic straws in campaigns such as ‘The Last Straw’ and ‘Refuse the straw’

In fact, some restaurants and pub chains in the UK have taken action on this.

Bar One Currently all 56 Bar One outlets serve 4.7 million straws a year. The chain will stop offering them with many drinks and through its campaign ‘strawsuck’ it is urging other pubs to stop offering straws. Other two food outlets, Harvester and Brown, also from the Whole Mitchell& Butler group, could follow suit.

Wetherspoon has stopped serving straws in drinks and from 2018 the pub chain will use only biodegradable paper straws. The pub chain announcement came in the wake of the growing pace of the campaign ‘Refuse the Straw’ which aims to stop pub chains and restaurants handing out the plastic straws.

What can consumers and businesses?

Consumers - ASK FOR NO STRAW when ordering a drink. Do we use a straw at home? NO!

Businesses - SERVE STRAWS UPON REQUEST – put a notice on your ordering counter, as part of the menu card "Straws served upon request This practice has shown that about 50 to 90 percent of patrons will not ask for a straw.

SAVINGS for businesses and for the community in waste hauling, landfill and most importantly removing a useless single use plastic item from the environment.

SWITCH TO ALTERNATIVES such as glass and stainless steel straws. Keep one in your carry bag and you are never without one.

Use eco-friendly options such as BIODEGRADABLE, paper and bamboo straws.

SAVE THE PLANET ONE SIP AND ONE BITE AT A TIME. SWITCH TO BIODGRADABLE FOOD PACKAGING!

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/landfills-and-methane-gas-any-upside2019-11-11T00:00:00+00:002019-11-11T00:00:00+00:00Landfills and Methane Gas – Any Upside?Adam PetytWhich is the lesser of the evils?

- landfill waste that biodegrades, or plastic;

- biodegradable waste in the landfill or even recyclables?

Read on to assess if biodegradable waste in landfills is even better than recycling.

About half of our waste lands in the landfill though the amount has been declining steadily since 2007 as a result of UK and European directives that urged an increase in recycling and other means of disposal. But because there still remain many types of materials that cannot be recycled or disposed of in any other way, landfill still remains an important part of disposal system.

Waste in the landfill does result in the production of biogas, especially when anaerobic bacteria decompose organic waste. The biogas comprises mainly methane and carbon dioxide. Methane is more potent as greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide as it is 28 to 36 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 100-year period.

All attempts should of course be made to reduce waste, reuse and recycle. But the reality is that we will end up with some waste and not all can be recycled.

Recycling has its own problems and of the waste that ends in the landfill, the lesser of the two evils is the one that biodegrades.

Recycling:

Obviously an impossible goal! Given the myriad of waste materials and their numerous chemical compositions, recycling has its own problems, some of which are:

Recycling involves high usage of energy and resources and hence a net environment cost. Furthermore, many of the products that we think are ‘recycled’ are actually ‘downcycled’. For example a plastic milk carton can never be recycled into another carton but made into a lower-quality item like plastic lumber, which can’t be recycled again!

Less than 10% of recyclables plastic containers get to the recycling facility as this is dependent on customers’ behaviour patterns. They need to end in the right bin and not the garbage bag on the way to the landfill!

Even if they do get to the recycling facility success of recycling depends on the facilities capability. Recyclable paper food containers can pose a challenge to the facility because of their polyethylene coating.

Landfills are plagued by bigger problems than biogas production.

Waste that does not decompose – namely the infamous plastic and petroleum- packaging materials that can remain in the landfill for 100’s of years. They never fully biodegrade and persist as litter breaking up into pieces and find their way into our waterways and the ocean. They harm marine life both mechanically and chemically – choking and clogging their digestive systems and when these plastic feeding fish find their way to our dinner table, they harm us too.

Modern Landfills and Biodegradable waste

Landfills are nowadays constructed and operated to stricter standards in order to reduce adverse environmental effects. The amount of waste, especially hazardous waste is reduced and all efforts are made to recover value from the waste.

In some modern landfills, the conditions (water, humidity, temperature, and lighting) are optimally tuned to bring about a speedy biodegradation.

Element 100% biodegradable tableware will biodegrade under the right environment within 120 days, producing a non-toxic humus waste that can be used as fertilizers.

Methane emissions – the upside

In some landfills, the decomposition process will result in biogases, notably methane which is both hazardous as well as valuable. The EU Landfill Directive requires all new landfill sites from 2002 to capture the methane produced.

A recent study by the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford has found that the largest factor in the mitigation of methane from landfill is through methane capture, rather than diversion or recycling, due to the quantities of waste already in landfill sites. For the past two decades, technology has made advancements in monitoring and measurement techniques, controlling the movement of the gas for safety and health reasons and most importantly for capturing the gas for use. Improved landfill caps on new landfill sites resulted in a 61% reduction in methane emissions from landfill between 1990 and 2002. In addition, systems have been developed not only to control, but also to capture, landfill gas, involving the use of a network of pipes, wells, fans and/or vacuums to provide a favourable migration route to a common end point. Once collected, the gas is either disposed of by flaring or recovered for its energy value. The energy recovered is classified as a renewable energy source under the Renewables Obligation and so any electricity generated is eligible for ROCs.

Considering the front end and the back end of the production of packaging.

We often focus on waste management and disposal of single-use and disposable of packaging. We are not wrong in doing so as we do need to manage our waste and consider the type of product (sustainable or non sustainable) as well as the method of disposal.

But in this obsession with the disposal and waste management, that is the back end; we forget the equally important front end stage; that is the production of such packaging. We forget how the manufacturing of the packaging can have more of an impact on the environment than even its disposal.

To fully understand the packaging’s environmental benefits and determine if it is eco-friendly, we need to consider its holistic environmental footprint. It is definitely not enough to look at only the back end of the process but to consider and understand its complete lifecycle A product’s lifecycle includes all elements of production (the front end) and all elements of disposal (the back end) - including raw materials sourced, and manufactured into component parts, assembled, distributed, used, and sometimes re-used before finally being disposed of. Every stage has an impact on the environment.

When we consider the environmental impact of the front end, some important things we need to look at are the:

source of materials used – renewable or non-renewable;

amount of Co2 used;

amount of energy used;

versatility of the materials for the back end.

Comparison between Element 100% biodegradable tableware made from Origo and some of our common packaging material.

Source of Materials

Plastic packaging - the most common of our packaging –plastic packaging are oil-based and made from fossil based non-renewable materials

Polystyrene packaging, commonly known as Styrofoam, is a petroleum-based plastic made from the styrene monomer.

Element products are made from a renewable sources of material - Origo (a starch based bio-plastic made of corn and yam), that will biodegrade in the right environment within 90 days.

Independent Accreditation of BiodegradabilityElement biodegradability meets industry certification including OK Biobased by Vincotte and ASTM D6400 and D6866. (In Europe the most important certification schemes for compliance to EN 13432 are the DIN-CERTCO (Germany), the Belgian OK-Compost label of VINÇOTTE and the Italian COMPOSTABILE – CIC schemes).

Note: Though Bagasse products are made from renewable sources of material and use less energy, Co2 and water than Polystyrene and even paper, they use more water in their production than Element products.

Amount of Co2 used

Life Cycle Carbon equivalent emissions for materials, prior to forming into food ware products. Comparison between Origo and typical plastics used in food ware products.

MATERIAL

PROCESS

GWP (kgCO2/kg)

Relative Impact to Origo

Origo, granulate

Flaked to pellets, prepared for moulding

0.95

0

LLDPE (Linear Low density polyethylene), granulate

Resin form, ready for extruding

1.82

1.9 x

HDPE (High density polyethylene), granulate

Resin form, ready for extruding

1.92

2.0 x

Polypropylene, granulate

Flaked to pellets, prepared for moulding

1.96

2.1 x

LDPE (Low density polyethylene), granulate

Resin form, ready for extruding

2.07

2.2 x

PET (Polyethylene terephthalate), granulate, bottle grade

Flaked to pellets, prepared for moulding

2.87

3.0 x

Polystyrene, granulate

Flaked to pellets, prepared for moulding

3.45

3.6 x

Data from the Ecoinvent Centre which holds the world’s leading database with consistent and transparent, up-to-date Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data.

It can be seen that Origo has ONLY 28% the impact of polystyrene, 48% the impact of polypropylene, 33% the impact of PET, 45% the impact of LDPE, 49% of HDPE, 52% of LLDPE. This is in the production of granulate only.

Amount of Energy Used

Origo manufactured in China and transport it to the UK, uses only 53% compared to polystyrene packaging

rPET (recycled polyester) – though considered a green option as energy required to make it is less than what is needed to make the virgin polyester – it still uses more energy than sustainable alternatives such as Origo as it need to be broken down before it is made into new plastic, which is then left in the landfill forever!

1 kg of plastic uses 85.9 mega joules of energy when burnt.1 kg of Origo used 25.4 mega joules of energy when burnt.

Versatility of the material

Element Tableware:

Origo - made from up to 70% of corn and yam starch and 30% - pp (polypropylene) pallets for water proofing and heat resistance qualities;

Element tableware can be disposed off as eco-friendly food waste. PP is assimilated with the corn and yam starch and will therefore fully biodegrade in the right environment within 120 days. When micro-organism ingests and digests the starch aspect of the product, the polypropylene (PP) content in origo that is assimilated with the corn is fully broken down into compost and produces a non-toxic humus waste that can be used as fertilizers;

Microwaveable and freezable, withstanding temperatures of -20°C to 120°C;

Do you know that 53 cases of 10-inch Cornware 100% biodegradable plates save enough CO2 as electricity to power the average UK home for one whole year?

There is substantial evidence that climate change is man-made and to mitigate this, majority of countries have put in place plans to reduce the levels of ‘greenhouse gases’ being released into the atmosphere. These gases, especially carbon dioxide have been responsible for global warming. So reducing CO2 emissions will definitely go a long way to helping the environment.

To reduce CO2 emissions, we need to first measure our carbon footprints. It can be calculated for a product, service, person or even a country, and is used to understand the impact human activity is having on the earth’s climate. The standard unit of measurement for carbon footprints is carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). And though CO2e combines the measurement of six types of greenhouse gasses, namely carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), perfluorocarbons (PFC), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas.

For a business to be carbon friendly, it needs to first know which activities within its operations and value chain generate CO2 emissions in order to measure its corporate carbon footprint. There are always many options available in the production processes, energy usage, transportation modes, supply chain, packaging and even marketing, for a business to consider and choose more sustainable choices.

In fact, in the UK large corporations have to include full information about their carbon emissions in their annual reports.

Element UK is eco-friendly business as evident from its carbon friendly 100% biodegradable tableware.

Here are some facts about Element products’ carbon footprints.

The process of making Element is 72% more carbon efficient than traditional plastics. Element is:

72% more carbon efficient than when compared to polystyrene;

67% more carbon efficient than when compared to polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)

55% more carbon efficient than when compared to LDPE

52% more carbon efficient than when compared to polypropylene (PP)

51% more carbon efficient than when compared to HDPE

48% more carbon efficient than when compared to LLDPE

1kg of plastic emits 3.4kg of CO2 when incinerated compared to 1.14 kg of CO2 emissions when Element is burnt.

27 cases of Element lunch boxes saves a whooping 1,400 kg of CO2 = the weight of one beluga whale

Carbon neutrality of Element

Element, a bioplastic is made from Origo – primarily corn and yam starch.

The quantity of carbon dioxide released when incinerated is up to 68% less than conventional plastics.

To illustrate -

A corn plant takes in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows.

1 unit of the carbon dioxide is “stored” in the corn.

This corn, together with the 1 unit of carbon dioxide, is made into Element.

When Element is incinerated, the same 1 unit of carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere

The net amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has not increased.

In addition, no toxic gases will be released during burning and the ash that is produced is non-toxic. It will not cause land and water pollution when they are eventually dumped in a landfill.

Plastics, on the other hand, releases new carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when burnt, contributing to the greenhouse gases.

Element products not only have smaller carbon footprints to plastics, they also predominantly come from renewable sources of material that will biodegrade and not be a burden on society.

A food could use 3 times the number of Element tableware as opposed to equivalent plastic products and still have a smaller carbon footprint.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/brexit-deal-or-no-deal-with-the-environment-12019-10-28T13:30:00+00:002019-10-29T01:23:34+00:00Brexit - Deal or No Deal with the EnvironmentGurcharn SidhuBrexit! - Deal or No deal with the Environment?

The question that begs for an answer is:Could Brexit mean an exit of environmental policies or will we now have the autonomy to set our own laws and targets?

In the curfuffle over deal and no deal, the environment has but, just been forgotten! An extension to Brexit has been granted in principle by the EU negotiators, but things are still up in the air!

The question that begs for an answer is: Could Brexit mean an exit of environmental policies or will we now have the autonomy to set our own laws and targets?

In the curfuffle over deal and no deal, the environment has but, just been forgotten! An extension to Brexit has been granted in principle by the EU negotiators, but things are still up in the air!

When Michael Gove was the environment secretary from 2017 to 2019, he did attempt some environmental protection policies such as a radical four-point plan to tie councils to common guidelines that will make recycling less confusing for millions. But a report in the Financial Times on ministers proposing to deviate from green standards set by the European Union, does cause grave concerns.

Most of our environmental laws were drawn up with UK’s agreement in Brussels. Proponents of the environment have often used EU laws to challenge the government on issues regarding air quality, nature, toxics and transparency. Will our policy makers continue to affirm their commitment to strong environmental laws and ensure a united action across Europe on climate change? So far, government ministers have had four chances to guarantee equal environmental standards after Brexit, but have declined the opportunity to follow through.

Many NGOs and advocates of the environment campaigned against Brexit because of the impact it would have on the environment and because a united action across national borders is very necessary on issues such pollution and climate change.

Does Brexit means:

Any of the environmental laws such as air quality laws, which the UK has failed to comply in the past, could be weakened further or even scrapped?

There are major concerns about the economy and when the economy suffers, sustainability can take a back seat.

Or:

In this climate of political and economical uncertainty, sustainability – being adaptable and resilient to change – can be the constant that can guide both corporations and policy makers to promote innovation and growth. This means putting sustainability at the heart of everything that we do both at the government, corporate, and individual levels. It means redrawing the targets and exhibiting best practices on sustainability because it makes financial sense.

Brexit gives UK the autonomy to set its own targets and laws on air quality, pollution, waste recycling, nature and climate change which can be as good as or even better than the EU laws.

UK can still be a strong voice advocating climate policies with its European counterparts.

Yet to be seen........ but we hope we will pull through in the right direction.

Carbon offsetting is an internationally recognised way undertaken by many businesses to take responsibility for their carbon footprint and portray themselves as environmentally responsible corporations to their investors and customers.

A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere - balancing carbon-emitting activities with carbon-reducing activities. No business can operate without a carbon footprint and carbon offsetting sounds like the right thing to do. But as in any practice, there are the ‘rogues’ and there are the ‘good guys’.

There are responsible businesses who try their best to first reduce their carbon footprint and then offset the remaining unavoidable emissions. The most common way of carbon offsetting is by funding a beneficial environmental work from investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy to planting forests. Carbon offsetting can really make a difference, especially if a genuine environmental project that would not have otherwise happened was funded. For example a wind-energy project that would not otherwise have been financially viable will add to the overall supply of renewable energy, thus reducing the amount of fossil fuels consumed in future. And if the project takes place in developing countries, there can be other resulting benefits such as employment, health and poverty eradication.

Likewise, there are many businesses that are using carbon offsets to try and make ‘amends’ instead of stopping their environmentally harmful behaviour in the first place. Such businesses are often accused of ‘dodgy accounting’ and ‘greenwashing’. In fact, offsetting could well be an unwelcome distraction from the real business of cutting emission in the first place.

Is Carbon Offset Legit?

Does speeding while driving absolve you from the offence as long as you pay your speeding tickets dutifully thus admitting your wrongdoing? Likewise with carbon offsetting.

Carbon offsetting may seem the right thing to do, but many issues remain unresolved:

Does the one tonne of ‘carbon repair’ exactly match the one tonne of ‘carbon damage’?

Carbon offsetting avoids dealing with the real problem that is, the damage caused by environmentally irresponsible behaviour in the first place. It is like paying to absolve yourself from the harm you are causing.

How do you quantify the benefits of carbon offsetting when you plant trees. How much carbon dioxide will they remove in their lifetime? And even if they do make up for the carbon damage, it will be a long time in the future to repay for a current damage.

If the projects funded in the name of carbon offsetting, would have happened anyway, no additional benefit has been provided but damage has been done.

Following the analogy of speed driving - wouldn’t it be more legally and morally right to instead change your driving habits and drive safely within the speed limits?

Businesses need to first reduce their emissions and only then consider offsetting unavoidable emissions as a last resort. To do this effectively they need to know the carbon footprint of the activity the need to offset.

Yes the race is on to develop more sustainable types of plastics from natural materials and replace oil-based plastics. And with technological breakthroughs and growing investments in such ventures, what was considered economically not viable not so long ago is fast becoming a commercial success.

But even as the variety of natural materials used from corn to shrimps, shells and algae increases and the production of such bioplastics grow, the back end of the process is no nearer to being any clearer or organised, thus still encouraging greenwashing and adding to consumer confusion!

Bioplastics can be the magic pill for our plastic woes, but only if they are disposed of appropriately. But with a confusing range of labels such as ‘compostable’, ‘biodegradable’ and ‘bio-based’, most of who are not supported by proper credentials, consumers are still not sure of how to dispose them.

Disposal Woes

Disposal is a logistic challenge especially on the high street where there are more chances of used products being thrown in the wrong bin.

Many bio-based products are not biodegradable;

Any claim to being biodegradable must be supported by independent credentials so that consumers do not assume that all so called biodegradable products can just be binned in the street bin to biodegrade naturally.

According to Jo Ruxton, co-founder of campaign group Plastic Oceans, bioplastics can do real damage when they end up in the wrong place.

Most compostable plastics cannot simply be chucked into a compost bin. They work best in closed environment the where collection is simpler and ends up in the right facility. If compostable plastics do not end up in the composting facility, then there is nothing green about them. In fact they end up in landfills and produce methane emissions.

To confuse matters further, many compostable plastics are made to look like real plastics and end up in the recycling bin where they cause problems for the plastic recycling process.

Even if the claims of being compostable, biodegradable and recyclable are true, given the complexities and realities, there is more likelihood of a biodegradable packaging ending in a landfill and producing a harmless non-toxic humus by-product, then a compostable packaging being disposed off in the right way!

A Simple Credible Solution - 100% Biodegradable Element Tableware

100% biodegradable foodware such as Element tableware can be disposed off as eco-friendly food waste to biodegrade under the right environment within 120 days. Element biodegradability meets industry certification including OK Biobased by Vincotte and ASTM D6400 and D6866.

It need NOT be:

Recycled and hence eliminating the chance of landing in the wrong recycling bin and facility. [Anyway, most recyclable foodware becomes contaminated once it has food scrapping];

Sent to special composting facilities which are not common and or land in the wrong type of composting facility which is unable to separate the plastic fragments from the other materials components hence contaminating the environment;

Businesses are increasingly using environmental claims such as 'being compostable' in order to differentiate themselves and their products from their competitors. But are such claims substantiated and appropriately qualified. Most of the time they are not as it is quite impossible to be 100% compostable!

What does being compostable mean? Being compostable simply put is ‘speedy biogradation’ - when the biodegradation process is carried out in a composting facility where conditions (water, humidity, temperature, and lighting) are optimally tuned to speed up the biodegradation process. Products that are truly compostable will not only "disappear", they will become fertilizers known as humus (very dark soil) and no toxicity is released.

Biodegradation is a process by which microorganisms (microbes such as bacteria, fungi or algae) convert materials into biomass, carbon dioxide and water when left by itself in nature. That is, the material becomes food for the microorganisms to feed on. Hence the word "bio". The main material is non petroleum based and is usually made from plant such as corn starch or animal sources. These microorganisms speed up the process of degradation from as short as a day to as long as a year and the products will "disappear" after some time if they are buried in a landfill/compost facility, with no toxic residue.

Is most disposable tableware truly compostable?

Most coffee cups and to-go food containers may look/claim to be compostable. But they are lined with very thin plastic to hold food and drink. This plastic coating breaks down into tiny plastic fragments which do not disappear and produce toxic waste. Consequently, they contaminate the finished compost as well as the soil where that compost is used. Worms and insects will ingest them in the soil; and when they get washed out with the rain, they feed into rivers, lakes, and oceans and impact marine ecosystems.

In addition, disposable plastic tableware is for one time use only and they are then trashed. As they are non-biodegradable, they are never disposed off, thereby adding to the garbage pile in the landfill on a permanent basis and polluting the whole environment.

Even Bioplastics are not always truly compostable. They must meet the international standards that define compostable materials to be included in composting

Compostability and biodegradability are not based on the feedstock of the product but based on the chemical signature that is, the way the plastics are put together. The final product and any inks or labels used, need to be tested and certified using international standards in their own right as being biodegradable or compostable.

Different compost facilities use different processes. Some have trouble even with bioplastics. In some facilities, the plastic-coated packaging get separated and no visible plastic is left in the compost, while others are concerned that the nearly invisible tiny fragments of plastic will ultimately ends up contaminating the environment .

Screening out the compostable items means extra steps and costs.

A product is either 100% compostable or it is not as most composting facilities cannot separate the biomass from the plastic effectively.

If compostable plastics do not end up in the composting facility, then there is nothing green about them. In fact they end up in landfills and produce methane emissions.

To confuse matters further, many compostable plastics are made to look like real plastics and end up in the recycling bin where they cause problems for the plastic recycling process.

Hence the Impossible Compostable!

Given that compostable products need compositing facilities, where conditions (water, humidity, temperature, and lighting) are optimally tuned to bring about a speedy biodegradation, composting is a hopeless reach for most individuals that want to help the environment through responsible consumption of material, which makes this standard seem difficult and misplaced.

Even if the claims of being compostable, biodegradable and recyclable are true, given the complexities and realities, there is more likelihood of a biodegradable packaging ending in a landfill and producing a harmless non-toxic humus by-product, then a compostable or recyclable packaging being disposed off in the right way!

What could be a simpler sustainable solution?

Simply a 100% biodegradable foodware such as Element tableware which need NOT be:

recycled and hence eliminating the chance of landing in the wrong recycling bin and facility. [Anyway, most recyclable foodware becomes contaminated once it has food scrapping];

Sent to special composting facilities which are not common and or land in the wrong type of composting facility which is unable to separate the plastic fragments from the other materials components hence contaminating the environment;

but can instead be disposed off as eco-friendly food waste to biodegrade under the right environment within 120 days.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/re-greening-the-planet-could-cut-carbon-emissions-by-a-third2019-10-17T00:00:00+01:002019-10-17T00:00:00+01:00Re-Greening the Planet Could Cut Carbon Emissions by a ThirdAdam Petyt
If we want to make a significant difference to climate change and global warming, then we need to get serious about investing in nature.

Planting trees can help us reach our 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting a rise in the global temperature to ‘well below’ 2C above industrial times, according to an international study. Natural solutions such as tree planting, protecting peat lands and better land management could account for 37% of all cuts needed by 2030, says study. 1 In fact the study suggested that “regreening of the planet” would be equivalent to halting all burning of oil worldwide.

Bronson Griscom, Director of Forest Carbon Scienceat The Nature Conservancy, who calls himself an ecological accountant, is optimistic when he discusses the “carbon economy” of nature: the everyday role that trees, grasslands and coastal habitats play in the carbon cycle. 1

Forest loss accounts for 8 to 10 percent of carbon emissions globally. Trees soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they burn or rot and tropical rainforests like the Amazon, home to many of the world’s indigenous people and endangered species are massive carbon sinks.

At Element UK we are serious about being the carbon economy of nature too.

Element tableware is more carbon efficient compared to many other plastic tableware:

The process of making element is 72% more carbon efficient than traditional plastics, such polystyrene.

Element 100% biodegradable tableware produces 3.5 times less carbon than polystyrene. Polystyrene has 3.6 times the impact of Origo.

A company could use 3 times the number of Element products as opposed to equivalent plastic products and still have a smaller carbon footprint.

The quantity of carbon dioxide released when incinerated is up to 68% less than conventional plastics.

Carbon Neutrality of Element

Here’s an example to illustrate the concept of carbon neutrality:

A corn plant takes in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows.1 unit of the carbon dioxide is “stored” in the corn.

This corn, together with the 1 unit of carbon dioxide, is made into Element.

When Element is incinerated, the same 1 unit of carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere.

The net amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has not increased!

Element has pledged to fund the planting of a tree for every case of products sold.

Element is changing lives while helping to save the planet through its commitment to the ‘Trees for the Future’ project. The trees planted are fast-growing, soil rebuilding fruit trees that promote the long-term health of the land. Element has helped to plant almost 10.000 life-giving trees in the Sub –Saharan Africa since July 2017.

Ever made a meal that was too big or you prepared too much of? Sure; either save the leftovers or throw them in the trash. But often times when we simply throw food in the trash, we are unaware of the harm we are causing on our environment.

While this happens everyday in our homes, the same situation is taking place in restaurants all over the world to a much greater magnitude. Worldwide, we almost waste 40% of the food we make. In the U.K. alone, restaurants throw out 600,000 tonnes of edible food each year; that’s enough to make 82 Eiffel towers. In addition, food production, storage and distribution accounts for 20% of the U.K.’s greenhouse gas emissions. Considering that restaurants aren’t gaining any revenue from unsold meals, one could see this more as a monetary issue, but in actuality all this food waste has a much greater impact on our environment. When food rots in landfills it releases the greenhouse gas methane, which is 21 times more harmful to our environment than carbon dioxide. So, what can be done to prevent perfectly edible food from compiling in landfills and harming our environment? Let’s ask Too Good To Go.

Too Good To Go is an app originally founded in Denmark in 2015 and has now made its way into London as well as six other countries. Too Good To Go, also called TGTG, sets out to prevent food waste by partnering up with restaurants and helping them sell their leftover food during closing hours. The way the app works is that it allows you to order food from cafes, bakeries, or restaurants in your area right before their closing time. Not only does this help our environment, but it’s also very affordable and cost friendly. Meals can be bought for as little as £2 and as much as £3.80, while still tasting fresh and flavorful.

At the moment, Too Good Too Go has saved 1,500 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into our atmosphere and has saved a grand total of 805,000 meals from entering landfills. For the short amount of time that TGTG has been around, it has made a tremendous impact on the environment and its community with its 2,300 active partners. They also provide their partners with their own eco-friendly take away boxes made of sugarcane, which helps reduce plastic waste as well. As a whole, Too Good To Go is killing multiple birds with one stone in the most sustainable way as possible. Who would have thought that a simple sounding app like this could help save food, money, and our planet?

As a sustainable company itself, Element is very supportive of Too Good To Go and could foresee collaborating with them to provide their 100% biodegradable tableware to their partners. With Element's quality chic products involved, customers would always be excited to get their food packaged up in vibrant colors that match TGTG’s partnering restaurants. In today’s age, it’s great to see companies like Element and Too Good To Go find unique and effective solutions to issues regarding our environment.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/is-the-term-eco-friendly-being-used-too-much2019-10-10T00:00:00+01:002019-10-10T00:00:00+01:00Is the Term “Eco-Friendly” Being Used Too Much?Adam Petyt

The Situation:

Are people growing numb to the term “eco-friendly”? What does the term really mean in the eyes of those who truly take care of our earth in comparison with those who just assume they take care of our earth?

For years it’s been used as a marketing and sustainability term to label laws, goods, and services whose purposes were to reduce waste and have little to no negative impact on our environment. But when greenwashing occurs, a huge grey zone is created and it can become unclear what products and services are really in the best interest of our environment. It seems that in today’s age, the term has fallen into the clutter and noise, therefore the average person may not really be sold or convinced enough to revamp their lifestyle into something more green. There is a need for a new spark in the industry that’s honest and true, but still excites and motives people to live sustainably.

Greenwashing:

Greenwashing is when an organization or company commits more of its time and resources to appear to be green and sustainable than it actually commits to research or making their products and services sustainable as possible. This is one of the primary reasons why we see the term “eco-friendly” so much and often times why we can’t accurately compare products across the market. Unfortunately, this effort to sell more green products has overflowed the market and consumers have just grown numb to the term. Some of the most greenwashed products and services today are bottled water, clothes, hotels, cars, paper products, and even mattresses. Without a transparent and informative industry, average consumers won’t be as willing to live green.

The Solution:

There are several steps that could be possible solutions to get people motivated to live more conscientiously in regards to the environment. The first is that consumers need to be more educated about their on our environment and the products they use. There is a need for simple forms of education that teaches people what products are best to use and what actions are the most effective to take. This can allow people to at least take the right steps into living more sustainable lives. All of this can happen if there is a more honest and open dialogue between consumers and providers of these products and services. While the International Organization for Standardization has implemented rules and regulations for eco-friendly companies through ISO 14020 and 14024, greenwashing is still a conflicting issue. With more transparency in the industry, it will become more difficult for a company to greenwash their marketing if they really aren’t up to standards or making a positive impact. This will reduce the clutter and overflow of the term “eco-friendly,” and will eventually make people more receptive to it in the future.

The second solution is using more creative marketing strategies and products that are still truthfully sustainable. Specifically, the average millennial is looking for something more than your basic product or service. They want something that’s relatable, easy to understand, and as simple as it sounds, something that’s just cool. Considering that millennials are the most sustainable generation and have longer lifetimes to make an impact on our universe, they should become the primary target for “eco-friendly” companies. Unique, informative, and transparent branding for genuinely sustainable products would help get rid of people’s disinterest towards the term “eco-friendly” and ultimately motivate more individuals to live sustainably.

Element's brand image, ethos, and products are a prefect example of this solution.

Our company strives to live in harmony with the environment and make quality products that create very little waste and CO2 emissions. Element’s unique branding that grabs the attention of millennials as well as other age groups. More importantly, there are many great benefits that come with using our products in substitution of plastics. With our chic, quirky, and informative marketing techniques and products, Element brings a whole new side to the once over used term “eco-friendly” and will ultimately motivate people to embrace sustainable lifestyles.

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https://myelement.co.uk/blogs/news/recycled-or-going-round-in-circles2019-10-08T11:00:00+01:002019-10-08T11:00:00+01:00Recycled or Going round in circles?Adam PetytDoes recycling help the environment or are we just going around in circles?One of the original goals of the recycling movement was to avert a supposed crisis as the nation’s landfills were running out of space and to reduce carbon emissions and the greenhouse gases as we reduce the need to manufacture new products, hence less mining, drilling and logging. But because more and more materials types have been added to the recyclable list, the process has become more complex and expensive than expected. In addition, recycling, especially of plastic waste mitigates carbon impacts only to a limited extent.

All its bottles are 100% recyclable. But by its own admission, that’s only half the battle. They need to get recycled!

One of the original goals of the recycling movement was to avert a supposed crisis as the nation’s landfills were running out of space and to reduce carbon emissions and the greenhouse gases as we reduce the need to manufacture new products, hence less mining, drilling and logging. But because more and more materials types have been added to the recyclable list, the process has become more complex and expensive than expected.

Here are some facts and figures on recycling rates in the UK:

7% of all UK household waste is classed as recyclable, leaving more than half still finding its way to the landfill. And the 45.7% only indicates it is recyclable, not where it ends up!

The charity Wrap(Waste and Resource Action Programme.) found that just 74 out of 345 local authorities in England (only one in five) providing a complete recycling service and the government has now accepted it will not meet 2020 targets because of the current bewildering system.

Recycling rates have stagnated in recent years and China’s National Sword programme that shut down imports of recycled materials from 13 December 2017 and our own funding cuts have seen more waste being burnt in incinerators.

The UK exports around twice as much plastic packaging for recycling as it processes domestically and mostly to Asia. Greenpeace Unearthed Investigation has discovered waste material exported as recycling in dump sites in Malaysia!

All of the stakeholders - consumers, industry and government want to see this improve. So why is change proving so hard to achieve?

Recycling is harassed with many problems:

Less than 10% of recyclables plastic containers get to the recycling facility as this is dependent on customers’ behaviour patterns. They need to end in the right bin and not the garbage bag on the way to the landfill!

Even if they do get to the recycling facility success of recycling depends on the facilities capability. Recyclable paper food containers can pose a challenge to the facility because of their polyethylene coating.

There have been effort at the industry and government level to promote recycling and some success has been achieved, but the volumes of collection materials required by the recycler have still not been achieved.

Recycle Now lists 28 different recycling labels on packaging. Quite onerous for a household to remember and be able to put their garbage into the right bags!

Are we going round in circles when it comes recycling?

The recycling operations itself are not environmentally friendly as they involve transporting, washing, sorting, chopping/shredding/re-melting etc it, involving resources recycling and its own environmental impact. Furthermore, the prices for recyclable materials have plummeted because of lower oilprices and reduced overseas demand. If recycling means high usage of energy and resources and hence a net environment cost, then it is only a partial solution. Furthermore, many of the products that we think are ‘recycled’ are actually ‘downcycled’.

There are four main categories of recyclable materials – paper, glass, aluminium and plastics. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimates, more than 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gases come from just a few materials - paper, cardboard and metals like the aluminium in soda cans.

But with plastic, it is not that simple and where recycling gets most controversial. While virtually all plastics CAN BE RECYCLED, THEY ARE NOT because the process is expensive, complicated and the resulting product is of lower quality than the original product. According to a 2017 Science Advances paper entitled Production, of the 8.3bn tonnes of virgin plastic produced worldwide, only 9% has been recycled.

While recycling may be the key to removing the plastic waste piling up in our landfills and oceans, it mitigates carbon impacts only to a limited extent. For example, 80% of the environmental impact occurs during bottle manufacturing, which is still necessary with recycled plastic. After collecting, shredding, and washing the bottles, recycling only removes about 10% of the carbon impact from a bottles life. As such, prevention of plastic waste is the preferred method of waste reduction for businesses in food and beverage services.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation recycling is an ‘outer circle’ of the circular economy and requires more energy input than the ‘inner cycle’ of repair, reuse and remanufacture. A circular economy means a system that eliminates waste; where products are made from material that do not land in the landfill or ocean for years and years on. But more than this, a circular economy is about better end-of-life recovery and about minimising energy use.

So how do we trash and still remain environmentally friendly?

By using products that can be reused. For example using containers for cookies, butters, cakes etc. for other purposes, using reusable shopping bags, bottles and cups, etc.

By making sure our garbage is eco-friendly. This can only be possible if we use biodegradable and compostable products. Examples of such products include nappies, wipes, cleaning products, washing /powders and disposable food packaging. Disposable food packaging is a common everyday product used increasingly by households. Many food packaging are made of foam or coated with plastic both of which are not only toxic and produce toxic waste when produced and remain in the environment permanently polluting the environment.

A biodegradable and compostable food packaging breaks down quickly and is becomes a by-product that is rich in minerals and ideal for gardening and farming.

Compost is a natural plant growing medium that reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. By setting up a compost area in our backyard where vegetable scraps, used paper towels, egg shells etc. can be turned into rich humus. This video on"How to Make a Compost Heap ." can help you get started.

Compostable, home compostable and biodegradable food packaging such as Element Packaging by default have zero plastic therefore lesser carbon impact.

Even if these products go into landfill, they do not have long term harming effects like plastic does.